Preila Project

In the exhibition “Preila Project” by the young artists Ignė Narbutaitė and Ieva Kotryna Ski, several threads of time intersect. One of them is contemporary images of the resort, which are fragmented narratives of rest, boredom, and escape to the periphery. The other thread is historical, going back to 1998, when the treasure was searched for in Preila. At the time, it was speculated that it could be the Amber Room, which was lost during the Second World War and was called the eighth wonder of the world. The story, which has been widely covered in the press, brings together personalities from several periods: Nazi party gauleiter Erich Koch, the Curonian Spit-originated witness Hanz Stančius and his cousin, the initiator of the search, Richard Pietsch – as well as a large number of supporting characters.   The story of what happened in Lithuania, reminiscent of a fantasy tale, became a source of inspiration and a starting point for the exhibition’s authors. The artists recall the commotion that rose during their childhood summer holidays – law enforcement officers, video cameras, divers in suits, neighbours with burning eyes. These memories are intertwined with the inclusions of the present, melancholically floating on the screens of the Pamario Gallery. The search for the treasure has taken on a geopolitical status, with discussions going on about who should receive the treasure that has not yet been unearthed – Lithuania, Germany, or Russia. In the video work, the global collides with the personal. The inflated story comically shrinks when seen through the eyes of two young witnesses.   “Preila Project” creates an audiovisual experience and allows you to see the history of a place through an artistic prism. The video work is complemented by an object – a box of amber pieces – which acts as another stencil-like landmark in the multi-layered narrative, and an audio recording that plays every few hours from the Preila lifeguard station. Image and sound are the two main constituents of the artwork, which act both individually and interact with each other. The soundtrack consists of quotations from periodicals of the time, chosen by the authors, which sound anachronistic and strange in a contemporary visual frame and contribute to the mood created by the work.   Viewers are invited to dive into it and positively shake up the sluggish routine of a seaside vacation. “Preila Project” subtly tells the story of the past in the present and takes us to a dimension where curious historical facts, utopian ambitions of states, and a vivid artistic imagination intertwine.